Stress is an undeniable fact of the modern workplace, and is often especially felt in the IT world. IT administrators face long hours, multiple demands, unexpected problems, and the knowledge that one small glitch can cause catastrophic results. Add in the fact that IT administrators essentially report to everyone in the company and you have recipe for job burnout and high turnover.

In the SMB world, where IT administrators often work with extremely limited resources and few or none of the failsafe and backup mechanisms usually employed by larger enterprises, stress problems are felt even more acutely.

People, Deadlines Biggest Stressors

Not surprisingly, the top three sources of stress for SMB IT admins are the bugaboos popularized by the “Dilbert” comic strip: people and deadlines. Specifically, SMB IT admins cited: management (28 percent), tight deadlines (20 percent) and the users they support (18 percent). And the effects of this stress can be debilitating. Nearly one in four (22 percent) SMB IT admins say they don’t feel great physically, while one in five (20 percent) say they have experienced stress-related health issues such as high blood pressure. So beyond basic compassionate concern for their employees’ well-being, SMBs also need to realize that left unchecked, chronic stress among their IT administrative personnel is a huge negative in terms of increased absenteeism and healthcare costs.

PEI Complete Managed Care can help. Tune into my next blog to see how!

Myke Schwartz, PEI

If during the process of moving your environment to FEP 2010, and you should happen to see FEP install failures with an error message of (FEP failed using Package ISV data to calculate precedence from CCM_ISV_SoftwarePolicy. It is required for applying policy. Error: Timeout after waiting 600000ms.) There are a couple of possible fixes from Microsoft suggestions –

1. Wait for CCM client to complete / report to SCCM before pushing software to the system.

2. Attempt to rerun the deployment once you have confirmed the above item.

o Test / review to see if FEP client installed correctly, if not continue

3. Start Powershell on the client by opening Command Prompt and typing Powershell

Run the following Powershell WMI query to check if the CCM_ISV_SoftwarePolicy class exists in WMI:

get-wmiobject -namespace “root/ccm/policy/machine” -class CCM_ISV_SoftwarePolicy

This resulted in the following error:

Get-WmiObject : Invalid class

At line:1 char:14

+ get-wmiobject <<<< -namespace “root/ccm/policy/machine” -class CCM_ISV_SoftwarePolicy

CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Get-WmiObject], ManagementException

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : GetWMIManagementException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetWmiObjectCommand

Attempts to manually compile the CCM_ISV.MOF file located in the ConfigMgr Client’s cache folder C:\Windows\System32\CCM\Cache\<Package ID> using the following command produced the error below because the mofcomp.exe could not be found:

mofcomp CCM_ISV.MOF

‘mofcomp’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

Run the SET PATH command from the command prompt to determine if the folder, C:\Windows\System32\Wbem, exists and if not add it to the PATH.After adding this path, the application of the FEP policies was successful.

4. Attempt to rerun the deployment once you have confirmed the above item.

o Test / review to see if FEP client installed correctly, if not continue

5. Uninstall the ConfigMgr client

Register MSXML Dlls: To re-register MSXML, click Start, click Run, type the following command, and then click OK:

Regsvr32 “C:\WINDOWS\system32\msxml3.dll”

Note This command assumes that you want to reregister MSXML 3.0 and that the .dll file is located in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\ folder.

Requested the customer to push the Client Agent again to these systems to re-install it and then to rerun the FEP2010 advertisement.

Re-register the client’s Scripting Libraries: Use the Fix-It from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949140 (which you did in the past) or perform the registration manualy:

To manually register the scripting components on your computer, use one of the following sets of steps, as appropriate for your situation.

You are running a 32-bit version of the Windows operating system

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.

2. Type regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\vbscript.dll, and then press ENTER.

3. Type regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\jscript.dll, and then press ENTER.

4. Type regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\dispex.dll, and then press ENTER.

5. Type regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\scrobj.dll, and then press ENTER.

6. Type regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\scrrun.dll, and then press ENTER.

7. Type regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\wshext.dll, and then press ENTER.

8. Type regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\wshom.ocx, and then press ENTER.

You are running a 64-bit version of the Windows operating system, and you receive the error message that is mentioned in the “Symptoms” section while you are using the 64-bit scripting components

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.

2. Type %systemroot%\system32\regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\vbscript.dll, and then press ENTER.

3. Type %systemroot%\system32\regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\jscript.dll, and then press ENTER.

4. Type %systemroot%\system32\regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\dispex.dll, and then press ENTER.

5. Type %systemroot%\system32\regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\scrobj.dll, and then press ENTER.

6. Type %systemroot%\system32\regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\scrrun.dll, and then press ENTER.

7. Type %systemroot%\system32\regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\wshext.dll, and then press ENTER.

8. Type %systemroot%\system32\regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\wshom.ocx, and then press ENTER.

6. Re-install the CCMgr Client software

7. Push the Client Agent again to these clients

8. Re-run the FEP2010 advertisement.

o Test / review to see if FEP client installed correctly, if not continue

Sam Westfall, PEI

~Thomas Berger

With every blog I write, the process begins in a very similar way. I try to think of recent topics in the IT tech world, search for information on said topics online, then ask myself questions like “Will this be interesting” or “Do I know enough to write about this topic?” And those questions help me to shape a subject and a blog. Asking and answering questions before any task, whether it’s writing a blog or building a home, is extremely important. For instance, if you walk in to the GAP, and ask an associate to help you pick out a pair of pants, there are some questions that you might want to ask yourself before you just start pulling jeans off of the rack. What size are you? What fit are you looking for? Where are you planning to wear these pants? And you will continue to ask questions of yourself until you have narrowed down the selection to the perfect pair of pants. Now, if you had no idea what type of pants you wanted walking in to the GAP, that process might take a while. But if you know you are looking for a pair of boot cut jeans, the process becomes easier.

The same type of scenario goes in to planning your IT projects. If you walk in to a meeting with one of our Account Managers knowing you want to buy servers, but don’t know what you will use them for or specifically why you need new ones, that particular project will probably stop dead in the water until you have put together your own list of needs/wants for those servers. And while it will be the responsibility of the Account Managers and Engineers to become a trusted advisor, suggesting the right servers for your needs, it is good to ask a few specific questions of yourself before taking the next steps. Here are a few examples of great pre-project questions:

1. What are the high-level objectives of the project?

2. What are the estimated costs of the project — and the anticipated rewards?

3. Does the potential project align with the mission, vision, and values of the organization?

4. What are the risks associated with pursuing the project under consideration?

These questions help to answer the business value of your pursued project. And while this list is certainly not all encompassing, it’s a good start and will help keep the tasks at hand on track.

For more detail on those questions, see: http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrategy/106373/project-management-4-questions-to-ask-before-starting-any-project

Erika Larson, PEI

Many times our business revolves around helping small to mid-size (50-2000 user) organizations design, implement and support enterprise grade solutions for their organizations. While that is the primary focus of PEI, we have also helped many smaller, start-up organizations get going from the ground up. Given the family business nature of PEI, we can understand the pains that start up go through when they are looking for that initial IT set up. Below are a few points that PEI takes into consideration when helping newer organizations get started from the ground up:

- Cloud, on premise, or combination

o Determining how you would like your company set up is critical. We can help address the pro’s and con’s of each choice so that the best decision possible can be made

- User adoption

o You must consider the “tech savvy-ness” of your workers when setting up the technical foundation of your company. Depending on how you think your workforce will react to newer technologies, the implementation plan will change to adapt to your users.

- Growth

o This is probably the biggest factor when deciding what tools to implement. While every new business owner has very lofty growth expectations, sometimes those growth expectations come with a large cost. Implementing the right solutions, with growth in mind, is the key to any technology investments an organization can make.

Arash Zadeh, PEI

What is direct access?

DirectAccess is a feature in the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems that gives users the experience of being seamlessly connected to their corporate network any time they have Internet access.

With DirectAccess, users are able to access corporate resources (such as e-mail servers, shared folders, or intranet web sites) following common security standards, anytime they have an internet connection.

Key Benefits:

• Improved Productivity

o Helps improve the productivity of remote staff by providing the same, always-on connectivity experience no matter if users are inside or outside the corporate network.

• Secure Connectivity

o Leverages IPsec for authentication and encryption.

o Provides the ability to apply granular policy control over access to resources, applications, and servers.

o Integrates with Microsoft Server and Domain Isolation, Network Access Protection (NAP), and BitLocker solutions, resulting in security, access, and health requirement policies that seamlessly interoperate between intranets and remote computers

• Greater Manageability

o Helps ensure that machines both on the network and off are always healthy, managed, and up-to-date.

o Provides administrators with the ability to update Group Policy settings and distribute software updates any time a remote computer has Internet connectivity, even if the user is not logged on.

o Helps ensure that organizations can meet regulatory and privacy mandates for security and data protection for assets that must roam beyond the corporate network.

I use direct access almost daily and love the ease of use. The look and feel of all the tools and information that I access is the same as if I am in the office. Direct Access is a great tool for working remotely. It just works!

Jon Eyberg, PEI

Job Title: Operations Account Manager (OPS AM)

Revised Date: April 30, 2012

Job Summary:

PEI is a recognized leader in delivering Networking, IP Communications and Infrastructure solutions. We have built our business and reputation on the quality and value of the services we provide to our customers. As an IT solution provider, we take great pride in the depth of technical knowledge maintained by our engineers and our ability to deliver advanced architecture. PEI is a Microsoft Gold partner focused on the Unified Communication and Advanced Infrastructure competencies, and Cisco Premier Partner. Located in Boulder, Colorado, PEI has been in business for over 24 years and has delivered on thousands of successful IT projects.

We are currently seeking an individual who possess sales experience with Information Technologies (including Networking, IT Security, Infrastructure, and professional services) that’s interested in a position to sell recurring Managed Services and Hardware/Software Factory Service Contracts, maintenance and license agreements.

Our ideal candidate will have experience in consultative selling on IT Solutions. The individual should also bring strong computer, communication, presentation and writing skills. A technical background will also be beneficial. Our OPS Account Manager must also have the ability to engage in discussions on both a business and semi-technical level.

Experience

Qualified candidates must have a minimum of 1 year experience selling IT solutions with an emphasis and exposure dealing with major vendors including Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Microsoft and others. This position also requires solid analytical skills and an attention to detail, timeliness and accuracy. You must also have experience working with customers and helping support field sales personnel.

Sales Focuses

This job has two focuses: Your primary emphasis is to sell and manage our customers’ product licensing, support and maintenance agreements. Companion to that selling responsibility, is to sell PEI Complete Managed Care (CMC) support packages which provide outsourced help-desk, monitoring and operations services to the same customers.

PEI has cultivated a customer base from prior consulting and engineering of customer projects with over 6,000 completed in the previous 24 years of business. Sales of these projects have historically included all required factory service contracts on equipment and software. Our OPS Account Manager will service continuity of these contracts for prior and new customers as their primary focus.

In concert with this primary selling responsibility, the OPS AM will also be cultivating new relations for PEI CMC services, help desk hourly contracts and other OPS offerings.

Our existing portfolio of recurring service contracts has historically approached $500,000 annually and traditionally has been growing. The successful candidate will service this account base.

This person must know how to cultivate existing client relationships and promote customer satisfaction, and should be able to leverage their previous experience working with vendor programs and personnel. The successful candidate will join a staff of talented individuals. He/she will receive support from Engineers, OPS management/staff, PEI marketing and our Executive team.

Compensation and Benefits:

• Highly competitive compensation including Base Salary and Commissions

• Quarterly and Annual performance bonuses

• Family Health Insurance

• Family Dental Insurance

• Paid Training and Certification Testing

• Paid Vacation

• Retirement with corporate matching contributions

• Employee technology purchase plan

If you’re looking for a challenge and an organization that rewards you for your commitment and hard work, we’d love to talk with you!  Please send your resume to Jobs@pei.com to be considered for this position.

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Microsoft and see, first hand, some of what System Center 2012 has in store for us. For the first time, System Center components have been truly integrated, providing some unique and powerful automation capabilities.

What if Configuration Manager could automatically respond to, and remediate, an error or warning event detected by Operations Manager? What if a request for a software installation in Service Manager could be automatically carried through an approval process leading to the application being installed by Configuration Manager? What automatic virus infection remediation? Client data protection? System Center 2012 can do it all.

Still, there are a couple features that I’m really excited about, and I think warrant a little more attention.

First is Configuration Manager’s shift to a user-oriented architecture, which allows application installs to be targeted at users, not just computers. It also presents available applications based on who is searching, not which computer he or she is using. This change can really make an administrator’s life easier. We can focus on who needs access to things, rather than which device provides access (and who is in possession of that device). The new Configuration Manager bridges the gap between user and app, creating an easier administrative experience and a superior user experience.

The other feature is Operations Manager ability to monitor, natively, web apps (.NET and J2E, specifically). Operations Manager can not only inform you if your application is unavailable, it can also alert you to performance issues within the application itself. Additionally, the Operations Manager dashboard allows an administrator to delve from a physical host server, into a virtual machine, and then into web services and specific web sites and applications to identify problems within a single interface. Operations Manager can greatly simplify monitoring your systems and infrastructure and shorten time to resolution.

System Center 2012 offers many, many more capabilities as well. Hopefully, this has helped whet your appetite, as the official release is right around the corner!

Shane Skriletz, PEI

A question that I am frequently asked after we get Lync installed and running is “How do we backup Lync?” This is a great question and one that is easy to answer. Thanks to the Central Management idea and Topology Builder, we only have to backup a few items in order to get the entire Lync environment backed up.

There are two crucial pieces for most environments. First is the topology itself and then secondly, we need the user’s data (Contacts, etc). To do the first piece, we use Export-CsConfiguration from the Lync Management Shell. An example:

Export-CsConfiguration -FileName MyTopologyBackup.zip

To backup the users data, we need to use the dbimpexp.exe tool. This tool is available in the root folder of the Lync Server installation media. It is also installed at \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2010\Support as part of the Core Components. Here is an example of how to run the dbimpexp.exe command:

Dbimpexp.exe /hrxmlfile:<path and backup file name> /sqlserver:<SQL Server FQDN>\<instance name>

dbimpexp.exe /hrxmlfile:MyUserDataBackup.xml /sqlserver:mysqlserver.domain.com

With these two pieces you can get most of your Lync environment. In the next article I will detail how to backup other Lync components such as the Location Database, Group Chat and Response Group settings.

Adam Ball, PEI

Unified Communications is designed for one thing – to take it easier and more cost effective for employees to connect, and to improve their ability to connect with customers and business partners. The general premise is to merge two or more communications into one easy-to-use interface. Generally, we’re talking about phone calls, instant messaging, conferences and collaboration.

The purpose of this blog is to identify the key drives and pains that small and medium businesses face, and to briefly show how improvements can positively impact the bottom line.

Top Business Challenges

Small and medium businesses are often faced with competition with from larger enterprises. To effectively compete, you need the right tools. Some of the major challenges faced include:

Pressure on Key Employees

Smaller organizations often have a few key “go-to” employees who are in great demand. Because of their critical role, their time is at a premium. What they need are tools that can prioritize their communications.

Owners Who Need to be Everywhere

The need to be constantly available means you’ve got to take calls from anywhere. Technology that stays with you, allows you to identify important contacts, routes communications and enables collaboration is critical.

Multi-Functional Roles

Any employee at a small or medium business leads a busy professional life that requires multiple roles. Juggling customers, partners, colleagues and tasks means you need efficient and time sensitive tools.

Limited IT and Telco Expertise

Small and Medium businesses don’t generally have the same resources and staff to support advanced telecommunication technologies. Have tools that are easy to understand, justify, deploy and manage is essential.

Unified Communications – Improving Business

The integration of voice and other communications makes it easier for your employees to identify and locate people quickly, and access and share critical information. Decision making is faster and better, and customer service is enhanced. By converging resources, the cost of communications, including voice, instant messaging and conferencing, is cut.

The Three Benefits of UC

There are three areas decision makers should pay special attention to:

Customer Services – Skills-based routing, conferencing, and presence within UC make it easier to stay in touch with customers and support their needs.

Improved Productivity – UC uses presence information and “click to communicate” capabilities to speed information to the right people. Collaboration is improved and the numbers of interactions to complete a task are reduced. This means orders are filled faster, decisions are made more quickly, and productivity is increased.

Lower Cost of Communications

A UC Solution may appear expensive, but properly designed and deployed, your communications costs can be reduced. Voice calls and volume is reduced thanks to Instant Message Chats; Travel Time is reduced thanks to audio, video and web conferencing; and Conferencing is delivered more cheaply because you can avoid expensive conference hosting services.

When Do You Consider Unified Communications?

If you’re moving to a new location.

If your old phone system will no longer be supported by the vendor.

If your business is growing and you want to “reach next level.”

If you’ve lost too many sales because opportunities are not getting to the right people quickly enough.

If you hear too many (or any) negative customer service stories.

If your employees work from the road or out of the office—and you can’t reach them when you need them.

Conclusion

Look for partners that can customize a solution that fits your specific business needs and budget. The “one size fits all” or single appliance compromise isn’t going to address what you want, or where you want to go. A competent partner will work with you and address not just the technologies, but the “use case scenarios” that are critical for successful adoption.

Tim Krueger, PEI

It started with SOPA, an American legislation to fight off online piracy and illegal file sharing. The proposition was opposed across the online space as people felt it would threaten the right to freedom of expression, and was soon taken down. But the hunt for digital pirates is far from over.

Recently, Megaupload.com was shut down under charges of blatant online piracy, and its owners were arrested and prosecuted. The crackdown continued on to peer to peer sharing networks such as thepiratebay.org, who have shifted their servers and the owners are fleeing arrest. Since then, many websites providing free file hosting have been forced to either shut down or disable file sharing, in a move that is having interesting repercussions.

While everyone can agree that online piracy of intellectual property is a crime and must be suppressed, the methods recently adopted leave some room for debate. Consider the case of many legitimate users who were using these websites to back up their personal data, but now have been forbidden access to it. And if the websites themselves are finally being held accountable for the content uploaded by users, what about sharing networks like YouTube or even Facebook?

The going has already become hard for these websites, as they are being forced to take sides and chalk out a concrete policy. Some of them have disabled file sharing to avoid any trouble. But the real threat this brings is to the emerging cloud computing services model, which relies on data hosting and sharing. Let’s hope the industry can make its way through the chaos right now.

Myke Schwartz, PEI